Coronavirus pandemic
Beijing tests parcel and food couriers to curb spread of virus
Total of 2.3m nucleic acid tests done so far in city; all delivery staff must now undergo tests
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Medical workers conducting a nucleic acid test yesterday on a food delivery worker from Meituan Dianping, following a new outbreak of Covid-19 in Beijing, which has now surpassed previous peak numbers in the city in early February. Residents of 40 communities under lockdown in the capital are required to self-isolate at home to avoid possible further transmission of the virus.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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BEIJING • Chinese officials in Beijing are urgently carrying out tests across the city to detect traces of the coronavirus on all food and parcel delivery workers in an effort to rein in a new outbreak, state-backed media reported yesterday.
Officials in the Chinese capital have been expanding nucleic acid testing across the city of 20 million since a cluster of infections linked to a wholesale food market erupted just over a week ago.
The coronavirus outbreak, the first in Beijing in months, has now surpassed previous peak numbers in the city in early February.
A nucleic acid test involves a swab sample taken from the back of a person's throat or respiratory tract, and the sample is then tested for the presence of the coronavirus' genome.
Testing was initially focused on residential areas near the sprawling Xinfadi market and on people who worked or shopped there.
Officials are now targeting the tens of thousands of delivery personnel who regularly traverse the city, where fleets of motorised pedicabs and scooters used by couriers delivering parcels and food are a common sight.
Workers at SF Express, China's second-biggest courier firm, arrived in batches at testing points in Beijing on Friday evening, Beijing News reported.
Food delivery firm Meituan Dianping confirmed that all of its riders in the city would be tested and those who had carried out deliveries in high-risk areas would be temporarily taken off duty, undergo nucleic acid tests and be quarantined at home for 14 days.
Customers will be able to view details on disinfection of the delivery package and their courier's body temperature online, Meituan said on its Wechat account.
Beijing News said all the couriers in the city would be tested for the coronavirus by next week.
Officials have highlighted the risk of contamination through packaging in Beijing, which reported 22 new cases on Friday.
The capital has now recorded more than 200 locally transmitted infections since June 11.
Officials have been testing people working in catering, including restaurant staff, as well as imported food after the virus was found on chopping boards at Xinfadi used to handle salmon.
Beijing officials on Friday advised citizens to dispose of frozen seafood and bean products bought from the wholesale market.
Xinfadi, Beijing's biggest fruit and vegetable market, supplies more than 70 per cent of the fresh produce in the capital.
A total of 2.3 million nucleic acid tests had been carried out in Beijing as of yesterday morning, Mr Zhang Qiang, an official from Beijing's municipal committee, said at a news conference.
Residents of 40 communities under lockdown in the capital are required to self-isolate at home to avoid possible further transmission of the virus, he said.
Those who do not comply will be centrally quarantined for 14 days and will have to take another nucleic acid test. They are free to leave if the result is negative, he added.
In Dongcheng district in the eastern part of Beijing, two Reuters journalists received notice on Friday that everyone living in their communities would be tested, even though they were in low-risk areas.
Dongcheng currently has four neighbourhoods designated as medium-risk, and there are now 34 medium-risk neighbourhoods across the whole city.
China saw 27 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday, with four imported and one local transmission reported in the northern Hebei province that surrounds Beijing. There were no new deaths recorded, leaving the death toll at 4,634.
Last week, China released genome sequencing data from coronavirus samples taken from the Beijing outbreak, which officials there said identified a European strain based on preliminary studies.
But the World Health Organisation (WHO) said only that the virus had been imported from outside the city and needed further studies.
"Strains and viruses move around the world," said WHO's top emergencies expert Mike Ryan.
"So I think it's not indicating that Europe is the origin of the disease at all. What it is saying most likely is the disease was most probably imported from outside Beijing."
It was critical to establish when the virus arrived in Beijing, how many people were infected along the way and what factors amplified its spread, Dr Ryan said.
But it was "reassuring" that the virus appeared to be of human origin and had not jumped the species barrier again, he added.
REUTERS
